


A Secret Shared

by SqutternutBosh



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Children of Earth Compliant, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-17
Updated: 2019-07-17
Packaged: 2020-06-30 08:46:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19849645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SqutternutBosh/pseuds/SqutternutBosh
Summary: Gwen finds Ianto sat alone in their impromptu Hub. They talk, and Ianto reveals one of the biggest secrets Jack has kept from them yet - his daughter and grandson. Set Children of Earth, Day Four.





	A Secret Shared

**Author's Note:**

> Oh man, I feel like I'm really coming out of the woodwork for this one - I haven't written a Torchwood fanfic for about 10 years! Some friends and I have been indulging in a nostalgic rewatch recently though, and this little one-shot came to me and was so insistent that I had to write it. I hope it's okay! I always thought Ianto and Gwen could have had a really nice bond if there'd been more time to explore it.

Gwen finds Ianto sat at the top of the metal stairway, hands around his head, staring down at his feet. She isn’t sure whether he’d noticed her appear or whether he’s choosing not to engage. She suspects the latter as her footsteps echo loudly as she heads over to him.

Gracelessly, she lowers herself down beside him. Lets her head fall back, eyes closed, joining him in silence for a moment. God, she’s tired. They’d taken it in turns to kip on the sofa a bit, snatches of sleep coming here and there, but her mind was too overwhelmed to properly switch off and succumb to more, even if her body was crying out for it. She hopes lack of sleep isn’t something that can be damaging to the baby. Although she knows how to take out a weevil, Gwen is happy to acknowledge that she has no idea how to deal with babies or how to safely navigate a pregnancy.

A small groan finds its way out from between her lips. When all of this is over, after they’ve got everyone else to see sense and let them take charge, she is going to have to buy a baby book.

The noise draws Ianto out of his reverie. He lifts his head up and glances over at her.

‘What’s up with you?’ he asks. His tone would normally have been more teasing, Gwen is sure, but right now he just sounds… well, glum.

‘So many things, Ianto,’ she says. ‘So many things.’

‘Can’t say I’ll argue with that,’ he counts. There it was, that spark, that little snarky coping mechanism he engaged to carry him through the mad situations Torchwood puts them in. Gwen is glad to hear it, she needs it right now. She gives her colleague a shove in the shoulder and he smiles, just slightly, tightly.

‘I’ve just realised,’ she says, aiming to keep the tone light, give them a dose of reality and hope beyond the bleakness of their current predicament, ‘that I’ll need to buy one of those bloody parenting books soon. You know, something like _What To Expect When You’re Expecting_.’

‘You might not be the only one,’ Ianto mutters bitterly.

The plipping dripping sound that seems to be a constant in their new hideaway punctuates his statement. Gwen isn’t sure if she’s heard him right. What the hell could he mean by that?

‘What, you and Jack are going to read it too? You’re going to co-opt my child into some sort of Torchwood baby? Get it down the firing range and singing lullabies to weevils?’

‘No,’ says Ianto pointedly. ‘Besides, the weevils really hate music, gets them all riled up.’

‘What do you mean then?’

Ianto sighs. Rubs at the cut on his face. He’d started to look a lot older, even in just the past few days.

‘I’m not sure I should tell you,’ he says, more to the floor than to Gwen.

‘Ianto,’ she says gently, ‘look where keeping secrets has got us. I’m not saying you _have_ to tell me, but something’s clearly bothering you, and I know you spoke to Jack right before he disappeared off to wherever he’s gone now, so -,’

‘No, you’re right,’ Ianto cuts in. He meets Gwen’s eyes for a moment before pushing himself to his feet, pacing and rubbing the back of his neck. ‘God knows I’ve kept enough secrets for Jack, I mean, when he’s in the mood to share and that’s once in a blue bloody moon. And now, he’s just dropped this on me, bit of a bombshell, I’m not gonna lie, and swaggered off again! I get why he’s done it, I do, there’s all sorts at stake here, but actually, I think you need to know this one, Gwen.’

He stops pacing. Gwen can feel herself starting to panic slightly, heart beating that bit faster. _What now?_

‘What is it, Ianto, what’s he done now? Is it about the children?’

Ianto shakes his head. ‘Not quite. It’s about his child… and grandchild, apparently.’

‘Jack has a kid?’

‘Given she has a child of her own, I think she’s more of a full-grown adult than a kid,’ Ianto says ruefully as he sits back down beside her.

Gwen isn’t quite sure, when she takes a moment to think about it, why Ianto’s revelation feels like such a shock. Jack has been around for a long time, after all, and he’s never been one to keep quiet about his many sexual conquests; the consequences of which Gwen was just learning fully for herself.

‘Frobisher took them hostage,’ Ianto says. ‘Jack’s gone to try and speak to him about it where they can’t track the call back to our location.’

Gwen lets out a long breath which flips her fringe up out of her face.

‘Blimey,’ she says eventually, well aware that it’s an affectation she’s picked up from Rhys. ‘ _Jesus_. That man and his secrets. And he’s never let anything about this slip before?’

‘No, but given how much time he spends with Torchwood, and then with me, and then brooding on rooftops, we can assume he was something of an absent father.’

‘True.’

‘Of course, maybe the mother didn’t want him around. Or maybe he’s kept away to keep them safe or some other noble Jack notion. Not exactly going to be an easy situation to explain when mum’s getting older and dad’s still as annoyingly handsome as ever.’

‘Also true. Not easy to explain to a kid.’

‘Not easy to explain to anyone.’

Gwen shivers, partly from cold, partly from the strange images playing out in her mind. ‘Thinking of Jack as a dad is weird. He’s too… not _normal_. Having children, that’s something normal people do.’

‘You’re having one, and you work for Torchwood. That’s not exactly normal.’

‘Ah, yes, but Rhys is normal as they come, just your regular bloke who works in haulage, so that evens the balance.’

Ianto’s quiet, staring out across the warehouse again. Gwen can hear Rhys and Clem talking gently in the distance, their voices carrying through the empty space.

‘And a grandson too,’ he says after a few moments.

Gwen really isn’t sure what to say to that. It feels bigger than knowing Jack has a child, it shows that, with Jack’s input or not, that child has grown up and made a life for themselves.

‘Do you think they’re like Jack?’ she asks.

‘No, Jack says there’s no way he can pass on what he is. It’s nothing to do with genetics or biology, it’s temporal.’

Ianto closes his eyes and leans back. Gwen can feel him starting to withdraw again. She can’t imagine what it must be like for him trying to process this, what it’ll mean for him and Jack, but she knows they’ve got work to be getting back to.

A smirk creeps onto her face as she remembers what Ianto had said before.

‘So,’ she starts. ‘That parenting book. Will you want to borrow it after I’m done?’

‘Gweeeen,’ Ianto groans.

‘I mean, if Jack’s dad and grandad does that make you some sort of step-parent? You have a lot to get caught up on’

‘Gwen,’ Ianto says, shorter and sadder this time. ‘Me and Jack aren’t exactly-,’

‘But he told you, Ianto,’ she interrupts him. ‘Yeah, with his usual Jack timing, but if he’s kept it a secret this long he could’ve kept it up. But he told you, so that means something. He knows you’ll have to talk about this when the situation with the kids is all over, so it must be something he wants to share with you.’

Ianto shrugs. ‘Maybe.’

He scratches at the cut on his cheek, which has started to scab over. Gwen swats his hand away.

‘Don’t do that, it’ll scar,’ she tells him. He scowls slightly and mumbles something about it itching.

Gwen claps the top of her thighs with her hands and pushes herself to her feet.

‘Come on then, we’ve got work to do,’ she offers Ianto a hand and pulls him up. ‘We’ll get through this, yeah? And we’ll help Jack get his family back. Just add it to the list.’

‘Yes, ma’am.’


End file.
